Interpretation of Divine Attributes with regard to Mulla Sadrā's view

Transcription

1 Interpretation of Divine Attributes with regard to Mulla Sadrā's view Sajad Zanganeh Tabar Ph.D. student Department of Kalam Isfahan (Khorasgan), Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran Corresponding Author: Ghorban Elmi Associate Professor, Comparative Religion and Mysticism Department, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University OF Tehran, Iran Jafar Shah Nazari Assistant Professor of Islamic Philosophy Department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Abstract God is regarded as the main axis and basis of religious teachings, since the fundamentals of religion especially monotheistic based religions are depended on the belief in God existence. The main problem which we are attempting to solve is the question of "whether God exists and if it is so, what kind of attributes is assigned to God?" Hence, most of the philosophical systems have focused on God and investigation of Divine attributes. Particularly, Islamic philosophers have paid much more attention to divine attributes, compared to other school of thoughts. For instance, in Mulla Sadras's philosophical system there are so many discussions focusing on the necessity of God existence and the glory and beauty of God. He also points out the especial position of God in Islamic philosophy system, in a way that, in most of Sadra's works, the masterpieces are about the nature, attributes, names and acts linked to God. In this brief research the main objective is to scrutinize the Sadra's view about knowing God, especially in terms of perfection attributes of God, which are based on theological and philosophical principles, so, we will observe the perfection attributes of God from Mulla Sadra's point of view. Keywords: Mulla Sadra, Divine Attributes, Knowldege, Power, Wisdom, Justice, and Eternity. Page 1111

2 1. Introduction The most important topic About God concept that can be traced in Mulla Sadr's points of view is related to his statements in a book called Al-Hakim al-muta'aliyga a fi al-asfar. In a section of the book when he has focused on the power of God existence, he has commenced from existence notion, which is familiar fir fans of Mulla Sadra. He considers the existence and being concepts as everything of the universe, sine he regarded the existence as an objective truth of a simple unit. For Mull Sadra, the disputes among the individuals, is related to weakness and deficiencies of them. He has claimed that perfection objective (truth) is so complete, and it only belongs to God. Thus, the existence and being self-dependent requires being dependent on someone else. The first is called necessary existence which has a mere and pure existence; there is no other thing, completer than this. It is free from any imperfection. The latter is beyond that, which are his acts and effect. This is called possible existence. So, Gog concept with regard to Mulla Sadr's idea is a mere and single existence. Moreover, he supposes the existence to be gradation (graded) and imagines no can be completed than God. No imperfection or deficiency can be attributed to God, according to Mulla Sadr. During history, God concept has been expressed in different means and senses. One of the bygone theologians, whose statements are close to that of Mulla Sadra and in some cases his statements are different from that of Mulla Sadra, is named Plato, who has used the terms, Gods and God, interchangeably. If God concepts is being used in a singular form, then such concepts refers to a simple unit existence, which is superior to universe. Since being and existence correspond to the sincere existence, but God's essence is beyond the superior than ideas. But, Gods notion refers to essences which are made and artificial and created of a simple God, who is beyond the reasonable being. Furthermore, they are heavenly bodies, not an abstract being, since according to the ancient Greece culture, and its followers, plants and stars were considered saint, similar to other creatures of God, Plato has followed them and he has regarded God as made as Gods (Rahmani, 2010, ). Although, Plato has sometimes used a singular form of the word 'God', similar to Mulla Sadr's ideas, but his ideas are different, compared to that of Mulla Sadra's view, especially when Plato has used plural form of word 'God'. According to 95 verse of Fatir Surah, Mulla Sara states his idea about the dependency of all creatures on God.»... انتم فقراء الی هللا و هو الغنی الحمید» For Mulla Sadra, everybody in the universe needs God, but God is not dependent on anyone (he is needless). The concept of God in Islamic philosophy is so different from other divine religions (Mulla Sadra, J 26, 2002). It should be noted that we can identify such differences in the statements of the theologians and philosophers about God concepts. It is worth stating that there is no imperfection about the truth of God existence. The deficiency is attributed to existence concept via effect, since effect is not equal to its own cause. So, the existence is a pure, otherwise, the combination could be incorporated into its essence or it may had a nature, other than himself. Mulla Sadra has extracted the above-mentioned ideas from Eshragian's statements, whose principle is based on the rule of light. According to the light rule, light is considered as a truth by Eshragian, which has various grades of priority and posteriorly and independency and dependency. Mulla Sadra has presented a wide discussion on the existence objectivity and nature of God, and he has reasoned in a way that, any nature to which existence relates, it needs a forger in its qualification to the existence, which has turned nature to be qualified to the nature. Since any statement is being related via a reason, so, the impact of nature on its existence, in a manner that it exists, is impossible. Since, if Page 1112

3 any thin can have an impact on the acceptance of other thing existence, it should be prior to the thing that it has related to that thing. Therefore, if nature is being regarded as a reason to its own existence, then it should be realized via existence prior to its existence, and in this case, it had existence prior to its existence, which is completely impossible, thus, if the existence us a waste obligatory to its nature, it is essential to need a reason, from its essence. Such case leads to formation of imperfection and need in the obligatory essence, but the deficiency and requirement are not compatible with obligation, which implies that such case is impossible. That is, essence is its existence. Mulla Sadra has talked about the invalidity of possessing essence obligation. He has claimed that, if the existence is a waste to it, then regardless of what has led to it, it is nor existence neither extinct, and anything with such feature is possible to exist, the priority to the existence, requires its priority to his soul, which is invalid. It may be caused by other thing, in this case it is called effect, and it is not necessary existence and it is possible to exist, which is invalid. It can be claimed that Mulla Sadra's God is necessary existence; his existence is pure, which is desirable on our side (Mulla Sadra, 2002, J 6). As Mulla Sadra has stated in Asfar, the Essene of almighty God is a truth and it is an evident. The question that may be arisen is that, "if God existence is evident, so what his essence and essence reality is unknown?" with regard to Mulla Sadra's statements on the mentioned questions, it can be construed that a human cannot perceive and figure out God's origin due to human's imperfection and deficiencies and God's high rank. God's essence is within ultimate manifestation. So, the imperfection cannot be attributed to God, since his essence is in the ultimate manifestation and rise, but human's limited intuition prevents him from seeing God. Therefore, his real essence is not invisible for us (Mulla Sadra, 2002, J 6). Mulla Sadra has expressed his ideas about necessary existence or the essence of God, in a very detailed manner. He has also stated his ideas and opinions about necessary existence. In his other masterpieces, called " Al-Shavahedo- al-rabavieh ", such necessary existence is substantive to God's existence and soul, which are the same as the necessary existence, since necessity is not sustentative to other things, and the existence itself is prior to other existences. The Mull Sadra's God is thoroughly needless and he is originator of other creatures and his being is originating from a his unique essence and he has not gotten his existence from other one and other creatures do not possess such high dignity and all of beings are depended on God (Mulla Sadra, Al-Shavahedo- al-rabavieh, 2003). 2. Attributes of God After presenting information about necessary existence with regard to Mulla Sadra's view, now, in this section we will discuss the attributes of God, from Mulla Sadra's point of view. An attribute is defined as quality which is not self-subsistent and it is nit disjointed from name to which it is assigned. Also, by supposing that God's attributes are infinitive, we can divide these attributes into two groups, the attributes of essence, referring to the constant attributes of God, which are old and eternal, while other attributes are called attributes of acts, on which there exist disputes (Sajadi, 532, 2010). Another classification of attributes of God exists, which will be discussed later. Attributes like beneficiation, creator, doer, savant (learned), and oneness, righteous are regarded as he attributes of essence. If it is necessary, we also express other attributes of God, including God almighty attributes. It is essential to note that, by presenting God's attributes and referring to his act, we seek to answer following question, what are the attributes of perfections of God who is mentioned in the religious texts and what kind of relation does exist betwixt God's essence and his perfections? Page 1113

4 Therefore, we will take a look at Mulla Sadra's works, and first we will elaborate the prominent attributes of God and describe the relation of these attributes with God's acts or his creature's acts. Form Mulla Sadra's point of view, the being originates from the source of necessary existence, which is so high and complete and the being ends to the same source (Al-Hadid Surah, 3)..» هو االول و اآلخر والظاهر و الباطن» The existence is an objective truth, simple unit and there is no difference among the people in terms of possessing the truth principle. There is a difference among the people due to the perfection and imperfection, severity, weakness or other similar items. Sine, the existence to which truth and higher rank is assigned, is far from any deficiency. God is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim (the mercy). All the creatures with any rank are dependent on God. In the following paragraph, we will elaborate the attributes of God. Before focusing the attributes, it is necessary to provide information on classification of the attributes, the difference of the name and attribute. 3. Difference between name and attribute The main difference between these two terms is related to the fact that name implies an essence which is qualified as an attribute, like Alem (learned). This attribute implies a meaning like knowledge, to which the essence is qualified, without considering essence, although in philosophical sciences, the Kalam and mystic have presented other differences for name and attribute. Theologians and mystics have investigated these two terms with regard to other points of view and one of them will be studied in the following section. Others have stated that the term of name is mostly employed in the religious and mystical texts and it is sometimes used in philosophical fields. The term of attributes is mostly adopted in the philosophical texts and it is sometimes used in the religious and mystical texts. These two terms are being used in the mystics, there are two kinds of term, one of them is called name, and other one is called attribute or modifier (description). But, in the philosophy and mystic or religious texts, there are two kinds of concepts. A concept is interpreted with a derived word. A name and concepts which are interpreted derived origin word, is called an attribute or description. It can be deduced that a concept which is implied by Alam word is a name and a concepts which implied by Elm (knowledge) word, is an attribute. Moreover, terms like omnipotent, oneness and other samples all are names and terms like power, unity all are attributes. So. What is the difference between name and attribute? The difference originates from difference between derived and derivation source. If we consider the difference between derived and derivation source with validity quiddity condition on nothing, then the difference between name and attribute will be valid. That is, name and attribute are the same concepts, but if this concept is adopted as the quiddity condition on nothing, then it is a name and if the concept is adopted as nothing on quiddity conditioned, then it is an attribute. So, the concept of Alam is the concepts of Elm, but it is adopted in a nothing on quiddity conditioned by name. if we state that the difference between derived and derivation source is related to the validity or invalidity of the essence, so the essence is not validated in the origin, but it is valid in the derived, herein, it can be claimed that the difference between name and attribute is related to the validity or invalidity of the essence. The concept which is implied by the term of "Alam" is interpreted as the essence having 'Elm' which is in contrary to the concepts implied by the terms of Elm. The latter concept, the essence has not been validated, so such concept is an attribute. We should point out that, the terms of attribute or description are used with these general senses in the field of philosophy, so that even a name is called attribute, Page 1114

5 that is, both concepts of Elm and Alam are regarded as an attribute, similar to other attributes like power, etc. finally, it is significant to note that, for Mull Sadra, an attribute can be employed in any sense, both in special sense and general sense. Its difference with a name does not require the excessiveness of an attribute to a name. 4. Attributes types The attributes of God are divided into two kinds, including Thubuta (affirmative) attributes and Salbi(negative) attributes. Accordion to Verse ) تبارک اسم ربک ذی الجالل و االکرام ( Of Al- Rahman Surah 72, it can be inferred that the name of God is big, he is Jamal (beauty) and venerable. The majesty (Jalal) attribute considers the essence of God superior to other similar things, this attribute fall into the category of Salbi attributes. The attribute of venerable is an attribute of God via which the essence of God has superior majesty. The Salbi attributes refer to negation from him. The affirmative attributes are divided into attributes of real characters and extras. Attributes like knowledge and life are regarded as the real attributes, while attributes like creator are regarded as the extra attributes and they can be traced back to the extra mandate القیومیه).(اضافه It should be noted that the existence of these attributes is merely linked to God's essence of essence. That is, although his attributes differ in terms of meaning, but we should point out that all beings are existing due to the same unique existence (God). So, his attributes are identical to each other in terms of applicability, but these attributes differ from each other in terms of concept and meaning. Seemingly, other theologians like Avicenna and Abu Taleb Maki have presented a same definition of the similarity of God's attribute. It is essential to note that the lord of citation and companions of monotheism, reminisce God by recalling his names and attributes. The act of mentioning God via his names and attributes is considered as virtue and lead to closeness of human to God (Mulla Sadra, 2002, J 6). In Quran there are four verses focusing on the good names of God, which are as follows: (180 (Al-Araf, وهلل االسماءالحسنی فادعوبهاوذروالذین یلحدون فی اسمائه سیجزون ما کانوا یعملون.1 (110 (Al-Isra, قل ادعوا هللا او ادعوا الرحمن ایا ما تدعوا فله االسماء الحسنی.2 (8, Ta-Ha )هللا ال اله اال هو له االسماء الحسنی.3 (28 (Hashr, هو هللا الخالق الباری المصور له االسماء الحسنی.4 In the above-mentioned verses, God has described his own holy names with beautiful names, and since Quran is sent for guiding humans and human is obliged to follow it, then we should also perceive the meaning of these attributes and recall God via these holy names and attributes, although in other verses the names we used were used with beautiful adjective, like verse 31 of Surah Al-Baqarah. In this surah, God has thought his names to a mankind in order to distinguish human being from other livings (Ebrahim Diyani, 38, 2007). Hence, the act of calling God with his nice names and attributes leads to a virtue. Similarly, Mull Sadra has always expressed God along with God's attributes and names. So, we should take a look at the names and attributes which according to Mulla Sadra, they belong to God. 5. The knowledge of God Mulla Sadra in a book called source and resurrection talks about the knowledge. He states that, knowledge is defined as the acquiring of an abstract object from article and its complications are independent for another abstract object. This act of acquiring should be for him, like the presence of knowledge. In the case of being cognizant of himself, it mean that the known is identical to the universe. For Mulla Sadra, this definition of the knowledge sometimes is considered as the acquiring of the knowledge from himself and sometimes form Page 1115

6 other one than himself. Such definition can be applied to God (Mulla Sadra, 2001, 188). First he has provided the definition of knowledge, then he has focused on the definition of the knowledge of God. It should be noted that Knowledge is one of the God's essence attributes. God is considered as the absolute learned. In some cases, knowledge implies a real affairs and in some cases it refers to the relative abstract belonging to the universe, so other derivations are deduced from it. He considers the knowledge and the existence as the same things, but when such existence has become weak and belongs to a lower rank, it may include some imperfections (like objects). After these objects and their modes, they are not knowledge existence, so they are not called with names of knowledge. The existence titled can be applied to such objects. The span of existence name is beyond the range of knowledge and other perfections like free will and power. That is, the material objects can be named existence but we cannot call them knowledge. Mull Sadra divides known into two types, including known by essence and known by presentation. The known by essence refers to the himself existence is the same as the existence close to the evidence, while known by presentation refers to the himself existence is not the same as the existence close to the evidence and its external form is not the same as its knowledge form. Hence, knowledge sometimes is regarded as the form obtained from thing by the perceiver and the known is an external thing form power of intuition. Moreover, in some cases knowledge is defined as the form of a thing form perceiver and it refers to a knowledge which is known, not anything other than this. With regard to the fact that Mulla Sadra has presented a very in detailed introduction for anything that he has investigated, he has followed the same trend in presenting the information on knowledge. In this section, first we will provide information about the knowledge, its kinds and the relation of evidence with known, then we will scrutinized the main subject. His idea about the reality of the knowledge is as follows (Mulla Sadra, 2002, J 6, Page 155): ))فإذن العلم بالشی بالحقیقه هو حضور ذاته عند العالم وهواتم قسمی العلم بالشی البحصول صوره هی غیر ذات الشی المعلوم اذالعالقه بین العالم وبین الذات التی هی غیر الصوره العلمیه (( In fact, knowledge is defined as the presence of essence near to the learned and the most complete section of the knowledge is related to the object, not via the formal acquiring. Since, there is no relation between learned and essence, which is other than scientific form. In this part, Mull Sadra tries to express the importance of the knowledge especially the presence knowledge. He has claimed that anyone who states that knowledge is depended on the form, he is wrong. First, he has criticized the most known statement and claims about the knowledge, then he has pointed out that he does not admire any of the prior claims about the knowledge and then he expressed his own idea. He has used the principles of the philosophy discipline like rule of simple reality". He believes that God in his rank, has a dominance over the human in guiding us toward the knowledge. He has considered several ranks for knowledge of God, including attention, Ironically, Magnitude, pen and existence notebook. Most of the philosophers have considered three rank for knowledge and Mull Sadra has presented his own idea based on these three ranks. Copleston in his book called, "Religion and The One ", based on the statements of the Ibn, Arabi has claimed that God created the universe in order to be known and he has claimed that the knowledge of human to God can be the knowledge of God to himself. That is, when human recognize the wisdom of God, then the God's essence will be re4alized in mankind's mind which refers to the fact that God's existence has realized via formation of God's essence in human's mind. Ibn-Arabi believes that God manifest himself in different forms and such different forms are regarded as the various beauties of God. Different God-based religions are also considered as the beauties of God (Copleston, 2009, 155). Page 1116

7 6. The rank of God's knowledge Before, Mull Sadra various philosophers including Augustin, Aquinas and Avicenna have presented different interpretations of God's attributes like knowledge. In the knowledge of God about livings will be presented with regard to Avicenna's idea. a) The knowledge of God about his essence The Mulla Sadra's God is a learned God and he is cognizant of himself. His knowledge has some ranks, his knowledge about his essence and his knowledge about other livings. Since Mull Sadra returns the reality of knowledge to the reality of the existence but by deprivation of the imprecations, he proves that any essence is independent from existence and he can hidden such essence from abstract. This essence is known for God himself and it is present for the essence itself. Thus, as the God's essence has the highest rank of the existence and reality of the existence, so it's free from any deficiency and imperfection. Based on such state, his knowledge is also positioned in the highest rank and there is no doubt about his knowledge which is free from imperfection. It can be construed that the fact of God's knowledge about his essence is the most complete and severe science, from advent point of view. Mulla Sadra believes that any essence is independent from existence point of view and it is abstract from anything leading to veil. As the reality of knowledge is nothing other than existence of the known for learned, hence any abstract essence is cognizant of his own essence and thinking of his own essence is done by his essence. Mulla Sadra considers the knowledge about the essence as most complete and severe science, from lightness point of view. b) The necessary knowledge of God about creatures in essence rank After providing a preliminary description about the knowledge of God about his essence, we will study God's knowledge about other livings. God's knowledge about essence is regarded as the knowledge about the reason of all livings, since, the essence of God is reason of all living beings and being cognizant of the cause means being aware of the effect and since the essence of God is the complete case of anything, God's knowledge is also complete. As the effect is among the requirements of the cause essence, and God's essence is the complete case, being aware of the complete cause leads to being aware of the effect. In the following parts, he has stated that the essence of God is Appropriateness of cause of non-himself. It is essential to note that God is cognizant of all objects and systems. Hence, God's knowledge about all thing beyond him requires God's knowledge about his essence. Such knowledge is simple and glancing. The objectivity of the essence is necessary and it is not addition to his essence which is emanated from rule of simple reality. While this knowledge is glancing, it is also the source of detailed knowledge. For Mull Sadra, Avicenna and his followers has followed a wrong trend in proving the extra knowledge. They have not perceived God's knowledge accurately. According to Avicenna, being cognizant of object can be only realized via scientific form and this scientific form is exported by necessary essence, since being cognizant of attributes is extra essence, so both sides should be existed, which is different from Mulla Sadr's ideas and statements (Avicenna, , 1996). c) The necessary Knowledge of God about creatures in creatures rank For Mulla Sadra, all external livings are emanating from Holy God. And they end to God via no interface or one or multi-interfaces and as the effect is identical to relation of cause and these existences are dependent on the God independent existence and their existence exists near the God and there is no veil for God' statement, hence God's necessary to other livings in Page 1117

8 their existence level, is considers as the physical knowledge. So, Mulla Sadr's God is a learned God who has absolute knowledge about everything and all livings are close to him. So, absolute leaned God is aware of anything and if he has created any living being, he has had knowledge about the creature before and after the existence of the creature. As in the future the discussion of the evil be presented, Mulla Sadra tries to answer to those who claim that if your God is absolute learned God, why he has created a creature which do evil things. He tries to state that nothing can be invisible or hidden for God's awareness, as his knowledge is identical to his act. It should be noted that evil did are not belonged to God (Mulla Sadra, 2002, j 6, 157). 7. God's Power One of the attributes of God which is investigated by Mulla Sadra is power. God is cognizant of the fact that his power is infinitive. Mulla Sadra is his book entitled Safar, has stated that power has two definitions. The first of is related to the accuracy of the act which is deemed by theologians. The latter relates to the power of God in his essence in a way that if he desire he can do and if he do not desire he will not do. Such definition is accepted by philosophers. As God is dominant over his essence, he can do anything based on simple real essence. So, God is powerful and he can do anything he wished. He has this power in his essence. Seemingly, But Mulla Sadra in his book called, "Al-Shavahedo- al-rabavieh" has presented a complete definition of the power meaning. For him, necessary power is defined as the exportation of the objects (like minds and souls, masses and objects) from his essence based on his free will and such will is identical to his essence not extra to his essence (Mull Sadra, j 3, 2003, page 75). Hence, the power of God is exportation of objects emanating from God and it means that God is the sole creator of the universe and all living beings. Now the question is that, if such God has the power of dinging anything why he does not hinders the occurrence of undesirable affairs and evil deeds? It is worth noting that accomplishment of any act requires existence of especial conditions and if the act is not being realized it cannot be deduce that God is cannot prevent it. To wrap it up, God is powerful and he has the power of accomplishment anything. (Mull Sadra, j 3, 2003, page 75) 8. Wisdom of God One of the attributes of God is wisdom. Mull Sadra considers wisdom attribute as the noblest knowledge about the known and the most stable act within artificial. As God know anything via its causes due to his essence, and based on such awareness he builds a complete system with ultimate degree of reality. So, we should consider God in his act and creation wise and accurate. It is with noting that we are obliged to count him as the symbol of absolute wise and such precise knowledge of God's essence has led to creation of other livings. Sine, God has created any creature purposefully and this is called the attention of God. So, Mull Sadra considers God wise, as his acts emanating from God's attributes are extracted from his complete knowledge and essence, thereby God has created everything on the basis of his complete knowledge. Nothing is beyond God's free will and all of these called wisdom of God. Mulla Sadra in his works has expressed wisdom in a different manner, he has stated that: as God is wisdom he has created system and order of good deeds in the universe with regard to hos won knowledge which is the most complete thing. As God's existence has "Naliat", so he has created the system and existence organization based on his full act and he has decorated it in a best manner. This thing ends to desirable real majesty (Mulla Sadra, 357, 2014). In this paragraph the relation between wisdom and goods system is investigated. As God is wise, he creates the universe system by order and on the basis of good, it means that Page 1118

9 there can be not evil deeds and imperfection in the main form of universe. He has created the current universe on the basis of his complete knowledge, which the completes compared to its counterparts. God is the full accomplishment on all rank and highest rank, there is no strength in his should since the existence of strength in the essence is indication of weakness. As there is no strength, so he is free from any deficiency and weakness. He has decorated the universe based on justice and good. As the world creation is based on justice, so there should be not evil in the world. 9. Eternity of God Among from Mull Sadra's statements, it can be inferred that the real ones should have to main attributes, one is the fact that his existence is eternal. Eternal is assigned to someone who never annihilates and there was no creature before him. Time and location cannot be defined for him. The second attributes is the fact that real ones is substantive to the essence. That is, for having attributes and being existence, he is not substantive to anything other than his own existence. No one can be his creator or annihilator. Among from theologians prior to Mull Sadra, we can find similar statement is Plotinus claims. Buy, Plotinus has used ones term, which implies that all of the being has emanated from him and all these thing will return to him. Then, Plotinus states that God is the source of good, he is not created. Plotinus's statements about the eternity of God should be pondered (Lofti, 31-32, 2010). The priority of essence to time and commence and initiation, is one of the most beautiful thoughts of God's wisdom and eternity of God means he is permanent. The essence of God has been with all times, it had priority to all things even the time limitation, and this means the eternity attribute of God. Times never go along with God (in the essence rank of God there is no time limitation). The essence of God for our perception is invisible. But he is in his own essence is manifestation. The main reason which leads to invisibility of God essence for a mankind is related to the perfection of the manifestation emanating from his essence. So, Mull Sadra who considers the real Oneness as self- sufficient being and substantive to the essence and eternity, he proves God is simple and hos ones and hi also demonstrate he is clear from any extra and he is not similar to any other creatures. As God is self-sufficient to his essence, thus he is absolute wealthy which implies that he must be eternal. As it was mentioned, God can be called eternal since God is a living being which is not confined to spatial and time limitation. This does not mean that we should consider God without any intuition or free from accomplishment, from time point of view. He is affirmatively outside of the time and location. God is not situated nor in time neither in location. Nothing can have dominance over God, while he has dominance over everything and environment. According to the religious teachings, the eternity of God has presented in three senses and meanings, as follows: One of the meanings is related to possessing permanent and endless time, the later refers to the timeless and the last one refers to the possessing of existence and existence perfections. With respect to Quran and Hadith, God is a living being free from poverty and requirement. Having such attributes requires no limitation of time and location for God, as any living being that can fit into the location, so it will automatically require location and if any living being fit into the time, it will be a kind of living being that can be realized in special and determined conditions and time. So, the eternity of God means something mere beyond the not beginning. As the saint Anselms ( ) has stated that, God existed not yesterday, nor today, neither tomorrow, God is not limited to the time. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are in the time range. Although noting can enter to the universe without God's wish and desire, Page 1119

10 but God is not limited to the time and location, he states that God has the power and dominance over everything (Hick, 2011, 33) In Holy Quran, there exist verses from which it can be inferred that "God is God of west and east, toward which side you return, you have returned to God, He is present in everywhere and he has dominance over everything" (Baqarah, 115). "And anywhere you are, God is with you" (Faslat, 54). The afore-mentioned verses ignore any idea of limiting god ti time and location. The intention is to ignore that God is not one of other realities, like the ideas Aristotle and Plato. Indeed he is the source of universe. Hence, based on the religious teachings, in Quran and Hadith, the real universe belongs to God. He is infinitive and absolute existence and he has various attributes, within which his infinitive reality took place. One of his attributes called God's mandate, which indicates the mandate governance of God over all creatures. 10. Justice of God The next attribute of God is justice, which deserves high attention to be thoroughly understood. Most of the theologians have focused on the justice attribute of God. According to Mulla Sadra and other philosophers of Islamic school of thoughts, the justice attributes which belongs to God's highest rank essence and it is regarded as one of the perfection attributes, it means that any living being in any rank and position has a special merit, in terms of thoroughgoing. The holy essence of God which is the absolute perfection and good and it is called ' فیاض علی االطالق ', grants to any existence from his own existence and perfection. In other words, it can be claimed that the justice of Allah in the genesis system means any living being receives any perfection based on his own merits. injustice means Non grace and forbearance. It can be claimed that, justice of God is identical to feyz and his own existence. God never withhold his kindness from any living being. It is extracted from statements of Imam Ali (AS), sermon 214: "the right is not one-sided anyone can acquire right upon other one and the latter one acquire right on the former one, only the essence is Allah who have right upon all creatures and all creature are responsible, so no creature can has any right upon God". In masterpieces of Mulla Sadra we can observe his statements and discussions about the justice and its relation with creation of the creatures, in the second volume of the Asfar, in section devoted to the possible creatures, he has focused on the justice topic in a very detailed manner. Do we want to express his idea very briefly, we may eliminate some of his statements due to the space limitation, but we will present a very brief of his idea in following section. In the discussion of material and form, both material and form are regarded as the two close causes of natural affairs. With regard to the fact that article is along with form, in addition to the material cause, there exists an subject cause beyond the material. Two subject causes are reasons of distance and play a role in appearance of the material affairs. If these two reasons were sufficient, the materialistic livings could be alive forever and they could have all qualified merits. But, in addition to the above-mentioned reasons, two form reasons of the material which are named as the closeness reason have an impact on the creation of the living beings. Moreover, there exists a conflict, since they accept the primary qualities of the corruption. Any material is capable of opposite form. So, the living beings possess two kinds of position requirements, one of them is related to the material and the other one is linked to the form. Form requires remaining and material requires altering. But, since merit is impossible and they are realized immediately, hence God forgiveness requires the universe material to be the most varmint factors and it is being completed by various forms. So, the wisdom of God has made the distance movement and time free from interruption and material alter possible which changes along with the pass of time and it can gain any form and mode Page 1120

11 during a specified time range. As the material is a mutual and it has the right in any from upon other form which should be full filed and returned to its owner, the justice of God necessities the transfer of material with its form for the other one, so the material will be exchange betwixt the form. So, there is different in terms of merits and justice means obedience of the merit and equality. Now, we will try to answer the question of "why there exists difference between God's creatures while his justice necessitates the ignorance of discrimination?" the answer of this question can be express as follows: Shahid Motahari in His book called Justice of Allah, has defined the concept of right and merit form objects relative to God as the need and possibility if existence by existence perfection. Any living being that can be existing creates the creature along with those perfections that the creature can carry them (Motahari, 2013, 72) As Mulla Sadra considers the justice of God as the general grace and he knows most of the living beings free from any discrimination, now anyone can come up with the question of "what is the main reason of this difference? And why the objects should be different in terms of their capabilities and merit while God grace is general and infinitive?" To answer these questions, it should be noted that there is a different between living beings, rather than discrimination. Discrimination refers to the state that in the equal conditions and the same merits, there was difference between living beings. Since God is the creator of all creatures such questions can be asked that why God has created the beings differently and why he has not created them the same? The mystery of the differences is linked to the essence of the living beings and these differences are requirement of justice and effect. Since all creatures have been created by a free will of God, but every creature should be in the rank that he deserves. And every rank assign its attributes to the creature which is not accidental. If a cause like A is the case of B, it is due to the feature of A, and embedded in A essence and such feature is the mode of their existence. If there is difference between the merits of the living beings, it is due to the fact that every creature is situated in a specific rank and proportional to the rank he has some features and condition required for acquiring the perfection. So, two merits is granted to creature since if the rank of his existence. It merits and perfection is not given to it, and then there exits oppression. But proportional to the merit, of perfection is given to that creature it will be justice. It should not be claimed that God has created creatures differently, since on the basis of statements of Mull Sadra, existence is the main reason. The existence is a rank and its realized is depended on the ranks. Every creatures in any rank, it has features and capabilities relative to the rank which are granted to him by God. So, there exists no discrimination in the universe and who believes in discrimination, he is observing the universe in a simple manner. If we take a deeper look and ponder we will notice that there is no oppression and discrimination in the universe and since of in addition of longitude system (which specifies the order to creatures in terms of creation system), there exist transverse system in the universe, proportional to which there is possibility of occurrence of any event in any time. 11. The act of God God is not depended on anybody. The holy essence of God which is necessary to exist and is the first being, is superior to anything that can be perceived by human mind, his existence is through and complete. Hence, God has all perfections and any attribute of perfection attributes. It may be claimed that any perfection, majesty, beauty is available in his essence and existence. His free will is identical to his essence. The position and rank of God is huge and it is not depended on anything other than himself. He is the first being. He is the absolute oneness. He is simple and all sided from perspective of act. He has the complete and through Page 1121

12 actions, so he possesses no deficiency which may require to be corrected. The act of having imperfection implies being weak and depended on someone else. So, when the essence of God is complete. He does not need anybody and we should not thing that his creation of other creatures was for his advantage. Mulla Sadra has tried to remove any doubt for anybody claiming that what advantages did God take by creating other living being? Since, God is needless and with regard to the meaning of needless which implies being full and non-porous body, it can be deduced that God is full of perfections and beauties with regard to the " المالن اوجب الفیضان ". the fullness of God has led to the Imparted grace in view the emergency and need should not be considered as the reason for creating creatures since, God without any obligation and emergency and with hiss full free will has created the living beings and he could not create, but he is Fayaz and Fayaz cannot prohibit Feyz, God is sublimity and with regard to holy Quran he is needless. By the way, with his free will he has accomplished the act and created everybody (Mulla Sadra, 2003, j 6) First Issue: With regard to the fact that Mulla Sadra has considered the first Feyz of God as the unitary affair and free from any multiplicity, it is essential to express the qualities of the first issue, for some philosophers, the first issue means the first effect emanating from necessary existence of the holy essence, which is the first epiphany of the essence of God and it exists in all other living beings. But, Mulla Sadra in his valuable book called "Al-Shavahedo- alrabavieh" and on the basis of verse 50 of Ghamar surah " و ما امر نا اال واحده ", God considers the first issue, wisdom (intellect, mind), which is necessary existence and real unit. So it is essential that the primary Feyz and the first creature to be a unit being. Such conditions can be applied only to the mind and other materials do not have such features. Since, the body due to its combination with other substances lacks the unity. Due it the potentiality of the substance, it lacks the effects. In should, such substance needs physical body and power of body. The only thing which deserves to be the first issue of God is the mind which can be emanated from essence of God. Hence, since this wisdom (intellect, mind) as it is directly issue from necessary existence, it has unitary since of issuing from the unit. Moreover, it has an existence rank below the necessary. If it was not through the intellect, it may another being which is not compatible with simple essence of God, since multiplicity of the unit thing is impossible. So, the mind was the interface for issuing other living beings and the first issue اول " Islam, and exportation of God is wisdom. With regard to a hadith from Holy Prophet of the most initial and primary thing created by God is mind and intellect (Mulla,"ما خلق هللا العقل Sadra, 2003, j 6). Abdollah Javadi-Amoli has focused on the relation of first issue with essence of God and tried to analysis such relation via analysis of issue of causality. He believes that the essence of God is the cause of such issue and the imagination of an effect which is the receiver of the Fezy (grace) originating from God's essence is impossible. He attempts to state that the receiver of grace before grant by God is not real and it does not exist. Such effect can be only due to the gift by God and his forgiveness. Thus, the effect is emerged in the form of subject. It can be construed that effect or the first issue is the position of God. Since of that it is said " العالم وجه هللا ", which means the God of universe. Peripatetic philosophers have reached to a unit rule with regard to the rule of origin, it is followed by first issue and after that they prove the numerous effects via interfaces. According to the wisdom of peripatetic and Eshraq, the first issue of God was mind, which is different from other intellects. In the wisdom of God and theoretical mystic, the first issue is considers to be deserved from necessary existence via rule of unit, this is called extanded grace. It includes all rank of creation and it is along with nature. Other living beings are Page 1122

13 determinations of its. This exported unity is not regarded as a numerical unity, but it refers to the unity of try. Amoli has also focused on the above-mentioned hadith of prophet (Javadi- Amoli, , 2009) 12. The attention of God Prior to God's attention from Mulla Sadra's point of view, we will provide preliminary description of Augustine's idea about the attention of God and grace of God for his creatures. For Augustine, God was aware of the fact the first sin will be realized by human, moreover, he was aware of the fact that a numerous number of human will be entered to angles association via God's grace. Hence, God was cognizant of the fact that human will do evil deeds and now human is dominated by death. So he created a mankind sentenced to death and these living beings are annihilated, so other living beings without free will and intellect ability are safer and they have more comfortable life. Even, the lions have not experienced wars like the one is experienced by a mankind throughout the history (Augustine, , 2012). The statements of Mulla Sadra concentrating on the attention and extended mercy of God are so fantastic and pleasant. He believes that God is complete and through, from free will perspective. And in all living beings, there is his wisdom, and goodness and respect, which is one of the wonders of the creation phenomena and it cannot denied. All of these are signs and indication of attention of God to the possibilities and it can be deduced that all living beings are created on the basis of God's evolved wisdom and measures. About attention of God, we should state that attention (grace) is defined as the awareness of God about his essence, which is a complete system and huge good is embedded in its inside and God is reason of his own essence. We should point out that these three concepts, including knowledge, causality and Satisfaction (Reza) are identical to the essence of God, so they are not addition to the essence. Furthermore, as it was mentioned about the monotheism of the attributes, all attributes are identical to the essence and even the attributes are identical to each other. From applicability point of view, these attributes are different from each other merely in terms of their concept. Herein, these three terms are identical o the essence, and as the essence is cognizant of itself it's also the best possible system. In other words, it can be claimed that the essence of God is identical o good system in a topmost manner and it is the best system. Whatever is reasoned by such system, that thing is graced and issue. It is a kind of grace due to which the system is created with a best purpose in complete manner, it the best system. Mulla Sadra has criticized those who offered a different definition and he has called those who believed in free will without wisdom, foolish, and according to Mulla Sadra these two sects are cited by following Verse from Surah Al-An'am (Surah Al-An'am, 91): ماقدرهللا حق قدره Whenever we talk about the act and beauties of God, it is important to understand the attention of God and without perceiving God's attention the interpretation of universe system is impossible. According to the wisdom words of Mulla Sadra, it can be inferred that he believed that the universe system is based on knowledge and benevolence and whatever is issued and God's grace has granted to it, apart from essence knowledge is not reasoned. Those who believes in the fact that it is accidental, or those who believes in free will of God regardless of his wisdom and attention are foolish in terms of Purification and unity of Divine (Mulla Sadra, J 7, 2001). Allama Seyyed jalal al-addin Ashtiani, who is the best exponents of words of Mulla Sadra, in his book called Philosophy and mystics has focused on interesting agenda related to the interface of God and his beauties, in a section with a title of expressed manifestations of right, "expansive existence and compassionate spirit is defined as the manifestation and beauty of the God's act and the substance is called prototype, which is the Page 1123